Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage

In March 1698, Jeremy Collier published his anti-theatre pamphlet, A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage; in the pamphlet, Collier attacks a number of playwrights: William Wycherley, John Dryden, William Congreve, John Vanbrugh, and Thomas D’Urfey. Collier attacks rather recent, rather popular comedies from the London stage; he accuses the playwrights of profanity, blasphemy, indecency, and undermining public morality through the sympathetic depiction of vice.

Collier begins his pamphlet with this conclusion: “[N]othing has gone farther in Debauching the Age than the Stage Poets, and Play-House” (Collier A2). He goes on, in great detail—despite the title—to give his evidence. For Collier, the immorality of the title stems from Restoration comedy’s lack of poetic justice. With his exhaustively thorough readings—in a sense, pre-close reading close readings—he condemns the characters of Restoration comedies as impious and wicked and he condemned their creators (the playwrights) for failing to punish the playwrights’ wicked “favorites.” As the title suggests, Collier also charges the playwrights with profaneness, supporting his allegations with a number quotations from the plays (i.e. The Provoked Wife, The Relapse, et cetera). However, most of these charges are rather mild (at least according to the standards of most modern readers). Collier is, of course, unable to give examples of blatant blasphemy, for at the time, they were neither allowed on stage nor in print (Cordner 213). However, Collier’s strategy was innovative for his time (not to mention effective). Before A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, most anti-theatre pamphlets were merely nondescript diatribes (e.g. William Prynne’s Histriomastix (1633)), but with his innovative techniques, Collier comprehensively indicted the entire Restoration stage (Cordner 215).

Therefore, due to its publication, a pamphlet war ensued (for and against Collier’s case), lasting sporadically until about 1726. In 1698, John Dennis, an English critic, wrote a pamphlet entitled: The Usefulness of the Stage. Yet, John Vanbrugh hardly took the attacks on his plays seriously. Therefore, he wrote a jestful retort, A Short Vindication of The Relapse and The Provok'd Wife From Immorality and Prophaneness (1698); in his pamphlet, Vanbrugh accuses Collier of being more upset by the unflattering depictions of clergymen than actual blasphemy (Cordner 217). On the other hand, William Congreve took the attacks on his plays quite seriously and refuted Collier’s allegations in his riposte, Amendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations (1698). Other playwrights preferred to give their reply on the stage (as Thomas D’Urfey did). In his play, Campaigners (1698), D’Urfey incidentally commented on Collier’s strictures imposed on the stage. Collier would later fire back with his Defence of the Short View in 1699 and Edward Filmer would go on to defend Restoration theatre in 1707 with A Defence of Plays.

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